Experience Fasterfox

[agibsonsw]

Hello.

Does anyone have experience of an add-on called Fasterfox https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/12878/?

Is it complex? Will it speed up my broadband connection? Ta, Andy.

[TonyE]

I would recommend against using it. It makes changes to some hidden Firefox settings that can lead to problems, and its prefetching options causes increased bandwidth usage and heavier load on servers. You can end up downloading a lot of data that you never use.

Fasterfox has been listed for a long time on the Mozillazine knowledge base as one of the problematic extensions - http://kb.mozillazine.org/Problematic_extensions" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Hey Jude]

"Fasterfox has been listed for a long time on the Mozillazine knowledge base as one of the problematic extensions"

This is interesting because on the link that was provided in the first post, it specifically says, "This add-on has not been reviewed by Mozilla." Since you posted it "has been listed for a long time" in the Mozilla base, then this is misleading.

Thanks for the heads-up Tony.

[TonyE]

It has been listed in the MozillaZine knowledge base as a problematic extension, but MozillaZine is not run or maintained by Mozilla. MozillaZine is an independent Mozilla news, community and advocacy site. MozillaZine is not run by the Mozilla Foundation and is not an official part of the Mozilla project.

There are quite a few add-ons on the Official add-ons site that will be listed as "This add-on has not been reviewed by Mozilla", many of them will be perfectly safe to use, but have just not yet undergone the review process.

[Hey Jude]

ahhh thanks for the clarification.

[ChrisGreaves]

Will it speed up my broadband connection? Ta, Andy.

I don't know whether these are the settings TonyE refers to.
I grabbed these from a "tweak" site and have been using them for about 4 months.

Code: Select all

68	Firefox	About:config; network.http.pipelining to set it to 'true'
69	Firefox	About:config; network.http.pipelining.maxrequests Enter 15 works 
70	Firefox	About:config; network.http.proxy.pipelining to set it to 'true'.

[pedantic] I doubt that anything on your system can "speed up your broadband connection", since your system has no control over the cable/airwaves. Your system can however "make more efficient use of your broadband connection" [/pedantic]

[agibsonsw]

I've come across something similar before but didn't try these tweaks. I will right down the current values and try them.

Could anyone briefly describe pipelining?

[HansV]

See HTTP/1.1 Pipelining FAQ.

[agibsonsw]

Thanks. I must remember to make only 'idempotent' requests!

[ChrisGreaves]

See HTTP/1.1 Pipelining FAQ.

Having spent wasted some time on Cottesloe beach in W.A. I've mused over the use of the term "pipelining" to describe a surfing activity.

Fans of The Chantays will understand.
(Crank up your Volume before clicking the link ...)

P.S. If you prefer The Ventures ...

[June Bug]

Will it speed up my broadband connection? Ta, Andy.

I don't know whether these are the settings TonyE refers to.
I grabbed these from a "tweak" site and have been using them for about 4 months.

Code: Select all

68	Firefox	About:config; network.http.pipelining to set it to 'true'
69	Firefox	About:config; network.http.pipelining.maxrequests Enter 15 works 
70	Firefox	About:config; network.http.proxy.pipelining to set it to 'true'.

[pedantic] I doubt that anything on your system can "speed up your broadband connection", since your system has no control over the cable/airwaves. Your system can however "make more efficient use of your broadband connection" [/pedantic]

Don't know if it makes a difference, but there is one step missing. Check out this site. Look at #3.

JB

[BobH]

See HTTP/1.1 Pipelining FAQ.

Having spent wasted some time on Cottesloe beach in W.A. I've mused over the use of the term "pipelining" to describe a surfing activity.

Fans of The Chantays will understand.
(Crank up your Volume before clicking the link ...)

P.S. If you prefer The Ventures ...

Damn!! I'm old! Did we REALLY look like that back then?

[BobH]

Will it speed up my broadband connection? Ta, Andy.

I don't know whether these are the settings TonyE refers to.
I grabbed these from a "tweak" site and have been using them for about 4 months.

Code: Select all

68	Firefox	About:config; network.http.pipelining to set it to 'true'
69	Firefox	About:config; network.http.pipelining.maxrequests Enter 15 works 
70	Firefox	About:config; network.http.proxy.pipelining to set it to 'true'.

[pedantic] I doubt that anything on your system can "speed up your broadband connection", since your system has no control over the cable/airwaves. Your system can however "make more efficient use of your broadband connection" [/pedantic]

Don't know if it makes a difference, but there is one step missing. Check out this site. Look at #3.

JB

Hey JB!

That change produces very dramatic improvement in page loading. Thank you!

I use RoadRunner and have pretty good speed here, but the pipelining makes a remarkable difference in page loading. I followed the instructions in the link you posted (and I'm usually pretty shy about changing about:config) and found it very easily done. On restarting Fx, WOW!

Thanks again!

Another Tar Heel - but in Temple TX

[June Bug]

Another Tar Heel - but in Temple TX

Makes no difference where you are, as long as you are a "Heel"!

Glad it worked for you Bob. Had forgotten about this little tweak until I read this thread.

JB

[jscher2000]

Don't know if it makes a difference, but there is one step missing. Check out this site. Look at #3.

According to one article, "Lower values will make a page initially display more quickly, but will make the page take longer to finish rendering." (That would be lower than the hidden default value of 250, which is in milliseconds. See: http://kb.mozillazine.org/Nglayout.initialpaint.delay" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ) Perhaps that advice is obsolete for very fast connections??

[ChrisGreaves]

Don't know if it makes a difference, but there is one step missing.

Thanks JB for the heads-up.
I see that in my haste to post I missed a few rows of my Word table:

Code: Select all

66	Firefox	About:config; browser.tabs.closeButtons;3
67	Firefox	About:config; browser.tabs.insertRelatedAfterCurrent FALSE
68	Firefox	About:config; network.http.pipelining to set it to 'true'
69	Firefox	About:config; network.http.pipelining.maxrequests Enter 15 works 
70	Firefox	About:config; network.http.proxy.pipelining to set it to 'true'. 
71	Firefox	About:config; New, Integer: nglayout.initialpaint.delay . Set its value to 0 

I haven't made any comparison tests; I implemented the tweaks blindly.
Items 66 & 67 aren't so much browser speed as user speed, from my point of view.

[agibsonsw]

Is there a little more explanation for these two additions?

[ChrisGreaves]

Is there a little more explanation for these two additions?

Yes!
They relate to my preferences for use of tabs.

"browser.tabs.closeButtons;3"
When I close tabs, one by one, I like to keep the browser open.
Without this fix, as I close the final tab, the browser itself shuts down.
This goes against my philosophy of "Never Close; Never Minimize"; I'm an Alt-Tab junkie!

"browser.tabs.insertRelatedAfterCurrent FALSE"
Commonly I'm reading a series of newspapers or blogs first thing in the morning (image below); on one page I see an article and I right-click, OpenInNewTab. I want that tab to open waaaay over the right-hand side. The page may take a while to load, so I'm essentially wading through previously-opened pages from left to right.
It's a sort of "Go to the end of the line, buddy" operation.
Otherwise I'd close the newspaper tab and find my new tab still loading right next to me.

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